LiveKit Agents vs Pipecat (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, LiveKit Agents and Pipecat share a 2.2 GPA, both have a free plan and their prices can't be set side by side, so the choice depends on whether you care more about features, where LiveKit Agents grades higher, or the free plan, where Pipecat does.
Checked Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on value for money, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
LiveKit Agents
Open source framework and cloud for voice and video AI agents
Pipecat
Open source framework for building voice and multimodal AI agents
Which one is for you
Pick LiveKit Agents if
- Fits if you are a developer who wants to build and ship a voice agent in one place
- Works for teams that start on the free plan and add phone lines later
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want no-code: you build agents in code
- Tight if you leave the free plan: 1,000 minutes, 5 concurrent sessions
- Pricey if you add it up: sessions, phone lines and models are billed per minute on top of the plan
- Watch out: private links, role-based access and HIPAA reports start at Scale, $500 a month
Pick Pipecat if
- Fits if you write Python and want to own the voice agent pipeline
- Works for teams that want any model and any transport without lock-in
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want no-code: it is a developer framework
- Watch out: providers for speech, language and voice are billed separately
- Watch out: the site says the Pipecat team is joining Deepgram, though it stays open source
- Pricey if you use phone calls on Cloud: dial-in or out is $0.018 a minute on top
How we grade them
| 2.2GPALiveKit AgentsFair | 2.2GPAPipecatFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CShip is $50 a month, the top of the category's usual range, and it is only a starting price with per-minute charges added. | CFree to download, but it only runs if you host it yourself on a server, which is a C. Pipecat Cloud costs $0.01 to $0.03 an active minute. |
| Free plan and trial | CBuild is free with no card, but 1,000 session minutes and 5 concurrent sessions run out quickly once real callers appear. | BOpen source with no limits of its own. You still pay the model and phone providers you plug in, and hosting. |
| Features | BFramework, hosted inference, deployment, phone numbers, observability and simulations. Nothing in the listing is missing from the job of getting a voice agent live. | CPipelines of frames, any model and transport, flows, a cloud host and a CLI. It does the orchestration job but needs speech, language and voice services from elsewhere to be useful. |
| Ease of use | DIt is built with code and the command line, and there is no store rating. | DYou write Python and run it yourself. No store rating exists. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with six integrations listed. Developer tools, not apps. | BRuns wherever Python runs, with seven integrations listed. No ready-made apps. |
| Best for | developers building real-time voice agents | developers building voice agents in Python |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: LiveKit Agents and Pipecat. How we grade
Where they differ
- Pipecat is self-hostable, according to its own site.
At a glance
| LiveKit Agents | Pipecat | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $50 per month | Not published |
| Free plan | Build plan: $0, no card; 1,000 agent session minutes, 5 concurrent sessions, 1 free phone number and community support. | Pipecat is open source and runs wherever Python runs; hosting on your own servers costs nothing beyond what you pay providers. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | LiveKit | Daily |
| Price read from | livekit.com | daily.co |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
LiveKit Agents
- The plan prices are 'starting at' and add per-minute charges for agent sessions, telephony and model use.
- An estimator on the pricing page gives about $0.0479 a minute for one sample phone-call setup; model choice changes it.
- Private links, role-based access and HIPAA reports start at the Scale plan.
Pipecat
- Pipecat Cloud is billed per active minute: agent-1x costs $0.01 a minute, agent-2x $0.02 and agent-3x $0.03.
- Daily WebRTC voice transport is free for 1:1 sessions on Pipecat Cloud; PSTN dial-in or out is $0.018 a minute.
- The site says the Pipecat team is joining Deepgram, and that Pipecat stays open source and vendor neutral.
- It is a developer framework, not a no-code builder.
Key features
LiveKit Agents
- Agents framework
- An open source framework for building and testing voice agents in Python or Node.js.
- LiveKit Inference
- One API key for speech-to-text, language and text-to-speech models, billed by model per minute.
- Agent deployment
- Hosts agents on LiveKit Cloud with rollback, deployment metrics and a global network.
- Telephony
- Phone numbers and SIP integrations so an agent can take or place calls.
- Observability and simulations
- Session recordings, event logs and text simulations for testing agents.
Pipecat
- Pipeline of frames
- Frames stream through the pipeline as they are produced, so the agent can start responding while the user is still talking.
- Any model, any transport
- Swap services from 200+ providers and connect over WebRTC, SIP or PSTN.
- Pipecat Flows
- Structured conversation paths for cases where a dialog must follow a defined route.
- Pipecat Cloud
- Managed hosting for agents, with unlimited concurrency and per-minute billing.
- CLI and observability
- A pipecat init command scaffolds a project; metrics, traces and OpenTelemetry are supported.
Plans
LiveKit Agents
Build$0
1,000 agent session minutes, 5 concurrent sessions, $2.50 of inference credits, community support.
Ship$50
per month, starting at
5,000 session minutes then $0.01 a minute, 20 concurrent sessions, team access and email support.
Scale$500
per month, starting at
50,000 session minutes, up to 600 concurrent sessions, roles, region pinning and HIPAA reports.
EnterpriseCustom
Volume pricing, SSO, a support SLA and a shared Slack channel.
Pipecat
Open source$0
Self-host the framework on your own infrastructure; you pay your model and transport providers.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, LiveKit Agents or Pipecat?
As of Nov 13, 2026, LiveKit Agents starts at $50 per month, and Pipecat publishes no starting price.
Which has a free plan, LiveKit Agents or Pipecat?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both LiveKit Agents and Pipecat have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.